Changing DNS Records to Point To Server

Question

What I have built is a Windows Server 2003 environment, with Exchange 2003 and a router that has port 25 forwarding to its internal IP address on my network. What I am having problems with is understanding what parts of my GoDaddy DNS to change to get emails to come to my new exchange server, and was wondering if someone could help me understand. What I have in the records are as follows:

A Records:

Host = @ PointsTo= 172.201.0.1

CNAMES:

e= email.secureserver.net

email= email.secureserver.net

ftp= @

imap= imap.secureserver.net

mail= pop.secureserver.net

pop= pop.secureserver.net

smtp= smtp.secureserver.net

www= @

MX Records:

Priority= 10 Host= @ Goes To mailstore1.secureserver.net

Priority= 0 Host= @ Goes To smtp.secureserver.net

Thank you so much for your help.

Answer 1

Getting mail flowing to your Exchange environment will require setting the MX records to servers that can receive SMTP connections on port TCP/25. The MX records are what foreign mailers use to determine where to forward mail for a specific domain.

---

I'm going to assume you have a single public IP address, and that's 172.201.0.1 as you mentioned in your question.

Your network is configured like this:

------------                                      ----------------
| Internet |    ---  [router/firewall]     ---    | Exchange box |
-----------                                      ----------------

In order for mail to get to your Exchange box, you have to set your MX record for your domain to be a hostname that any Internet host can get to. The absolute minimum needed would be to set:

A Records:
smtp.yourdomain.net = [your public IP address]

MX Records:
Priority = 1
Host = @
Goes To = smtp.yourdomain.net

Unless you have some service as your backup mailer, you will only need one MX record.

Now that the DNS is set up correctly, you need to set up your router to forward port 25 to the Exchange server's internal IP address.